Complete Aikido. Christopher Watson G.

not from your side. If he asked you to come sit with him and talk, that’s when you talked. Otherwise, in our travels, he would spend his free time resting or sleeping.”

      There are stories of O’Sensei, particularly in the early days of aikido, putting his attendants to the test; for example, changing his mind about boarding a train at the last possible moment, sending his valets scrambling to retrieve his bags and arrange new transportation. However, Suenaka never experienced any of this:

      “It might be true that in the old days O’Sensei did that, but he wasn’t like that while I was [in Japan]. He never really tested us or tried to fool us like that. He might have done that before, playfully, or maybe just decided to change his mind for whatever reason, but it was all pretty straightforward when we were with him. He was a real serious guy.”

      As Suenaka’s relationship with O’Sensei grew, so did his relationship with the man who first introduced him to aikido, Koichi Tohei. Thanks to the Air Force, Suenaka was one of the few original Hawaiian aikidoka who was able to spend an appreciable length of time studying at the Hombu, and so developed a relationship with Tohei perhaps unrivaled by those whose aikido practice began as his did, with Tohei’s first Hawaiian visit in 1953. Just over forty years old at the time of Suenaka’s arrival in Japan, Tohei was entering into his physical and martial prime. Handsome, charismatic, and boasting powerful technique, he was a commanding and popular presence on the mat and off, and had an equally powerful personal effect on young Suenaka. Tohei Sensei recognized Suenaka from his many trips to Hawaii, and upon returning to Japan about a month after Suenaka’s arrival there, Tohei took the younger man under his wing from the very start: “My relationship with Tohei Sensei was, I guess you would say, like a father and son . . . we had a lot of respect for each other, a lot of love for each other . . . . And even today, [I] have a lot of love and respect for him.”

      Suenaka Sensei with Koichi Tohei at Iwama; April, 1964.

      As their relationship grew, Tohei took Suenaka with him on his frequent travels throughout Japan as his personal deshi, teaching aikido and lecturing and, after the day’s work was done, spending the night on the town. “We did a lot of things together,” Suenaka recalls. “We went out together, partied together, went nightclubbing together, ate together. . . . He had a lot of friends, and was a very popular person all over Japan.” In his position as chief Hombu instructor, Tohei Sensei pretty much set his own schedule, arranging his own demonstrations and lectures, departing and returning to the Hombu as he wished.

      Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Suenaka Sensei, at O’Sensei’s Iwama dojo; April 1964. The figure seen in silhouette in the doorway behind them is O’Sensei.

      Suenaka Sensei with Kisshomaru Ueshiba at the Aikikai Hombu; December, 1993.

      Where his relationship with Tohei Sensei was close, Suenaka’s relationship with Kisshomaru Ueshiba Doshu was more formal. This was not so much a function of temperment as it was position. As the son of the Founder, Doshu was charged with the day-to-day administrative duties necessary to run the organization. Suenaka describes his relationship with Doshu as “. . . business-like. Knowing that Tohei Sensei and I were very close, and I was one of his deshi, Doshu didn’t ignore me, but he left me to Tohei Sensei’s guidance.” Still, there were many times during the years Suenaka studied at the Hombu during which he accompanied Doshu to the Aiki Jinja in Iwama to meditate and say prayers. Whenever he traveled to the Hombu, Suenaka would formally request permission to spend a few moments with Doshu, both out of respect for Doshu’s position and out of curiosity and a sincere desire to get to know him better. “He always had time to talk to me,” Suenaka says. “Of course, I would bring gifts. In Japan, you have to bring gifts . . . they bring gifts, you bring gifts. I brought real good gifts—Napoleon brandy and Henessey cognac—so they were very appreciative! But I wasn’t buying favors, and they understood that. He gave me his time, and I respect him for that. Whenever we got together, [Doshu] was such a warm person. He is reserved, but very humble, self-effacing. He is a very gracious person.”

      With Koichi Tohei, Suenaka also found the opportunity to practice misogi (ritual purification) with disciples of Shin-Shin Toitsu Do (“Way of Mind and Body Coordinated”), the spiritual development system founded by Tempu Nakamura and based on elements of yoga and other spiritual disciplines, as well as swordsmanship. Suenaka and others would make pilgrimages into the mountains, kneeling in meditation in the snow, then plunging shirtless into an icy mountain stream, kneeling in the water up to their necks, then running back to kneel in the snow once again and continue meditating. “After a while, the water felt warmer than the air!,” says Suenaka. “But it really focused you, and made you tough.”

      Nakamura’s teachings had an even greater influence on Tohei. When he ultimately severed relations with the Hombu in the years following O’Sensei’s death, Tohei Sensei christened his new organization Shin-Shin Toitsu aikido (Aikido with Mind and Body Coordinated), and gradually shifted his teaching emphasis from physical waza to ki development almost exclusively (discussed later).

      The arrangement at the Hombu was too good to be true, and so perhaps too good to last. In May of 1961, about three months after his arrival in Japan, Airman Suenaka unexpectedly received transfer orders. He was still considered a surplus airman, remaining in Japan only until the Air Force could find room for him elsewhere, which they did—in Korea. Suenaka was shocked. Regardless of its close geographic proximity, it might as well have been on another planet. But having just tasted what it was like to study with O’Sensei, he wasn’t about to give it up without a fight. Fortunately, he had a cousin who was assigned to the 5th Air Force, the regional command. Suenaka pleaded with him to do whatever he could to allow him to remain in Japan. “He said, ‘The best I can do for you is Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.” The U.S. government was constructing a missile base there to help defend the Japanese mainland, Okinawa and nearby smaller islands against possible attack by the Communist Chinese, and servicemen possessing electrical engineering skills like Suenaka were in high demand. Still, at the time, Okinawa seemed to him no better than Korea. It was even more distant from Tokyo, and the likelihood of being able to spend weeks at a time studying at the Hombu, as he was then, seemed remote at best. On the other hand, Okinawa was obviously more akin culturally to Japan than was Korea, so Suenaka would feel more at home, especially considering that while his Japanese was still rusty, he spoke no Korean. And while travel to the Hombu might be difficult, it wouldn’t be impossible. Okinawa was clearly his best alternative, and he accepted the assignment. Once again, though, it seemed as if divine providence was guiding Suenaka’s life; far from being a disappointment, his stay in Okinawa was to become one of the most significant periods in both his martial development and his personal life.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      Okinawa And Elsewhere

      As it turned out, Suenaka Sensei’s fear that moving to Okinawa would seriously curtail his study at the Hombu was unrealized. The air force was still actively encouraging servicemen and women to pursue the martial arts, as part of fitness and survival training for air crews and related personnel. When Suenaka arrived at Kadena in May of 1961, he found more sympathy than resistance from his command when it came to furthering his martial education. Again, because of the nature of his duties, Suenaka was able to take what is known as “permissive TDY” (temporary duty), meaning he was given permission by his CO to take occasional personal leave; granted, not as frequently as when he was stationed in Tokyo, but still, he managed to visit and study with O’Sensei four or five times a year, for several weeks at a time, serving as an uchi deshi and, later, a personal deshi to Tohei Sensei. Suenaka recalls one of his more humorous experiences with O’Sensei from this time, involving Tendokan aikido founder Kenji Shimizu:

      “It was in the spring of 1964. It was the Aiki-Matsuri, the Aiki Festival, which